


Cracked

by arochill



Series: Linked Universe Fics [1]
Category: LinkedUniverse - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Self-Doubt, Self-Esteem Issues, Wild (Linked Universe) Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-30 09:34:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21426043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arochill/pseuds/arochill
Summary: It had been building for a long time, but watching Twilight be injured right in front of him whilst he could have helped him was what finally had him snapping.
Series: Linked Universe Fics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1555819
Comments: 18
Kudos: 400
Collections: The Bard's Roost





	1. Chapter 1

Sometimes, when Wild was alone with his thoughts and the world was quiet around him, he could feel memories drifting back to him.

This was one of those nights.

They were never close enough, no matter how hard he tried, and they were forever a blur of colour and hurt and happiness and loss and there was so much that he wanted to remember but he had no choice in the matter. The scars that littered his body were the closest thing he had to a record of the battles he had gone through all those years ago before he failed, and the years after that on his way to try and defeat the Calamity once again.

The scars were one of the only things that stopped his new companions from asking to far into his past. It wasn’t that they were pushy about gaining the knowledge, near all of them understood the want to keep things to themselves, but he knew that he would never be able to explain if they were to ask.

He had no memories to share, none that would be seen as fun or exciting, not like the ones that they brought up at night as they all sat around the fire waiting for Wild to finish making dinner for all of them. He found the stories his companions shared enjoyable,  _ fascinating,  _ even, but when he was alone in the night, left with only his thoughts, he was left to wonder what he had to share. All he had to share was the exhaustion, the pressure that laid on his shoulders from the very moment he had woken up lacking his memories, the disappointment he had caused and the failure he was, the amount of lives he had caused to vanish from the world.

His new companions were strange, that much was obvious to anyone that looked upon the group. Wild was not an exception. But despite all they had gone through and all they had lost they were able to look past it and try to move on, try to smile and share the good parts of their stories instead of the horror they had experienced.

In some ways, in  _ a lot  _ of ways, Wild and his companions were the same. They were all a hero, forced into the role and shouldering the burden of it even now. They were all Link, even though they had long since chosen names for each other in order to have things actually make sense during conversations. They had all seen things that they should never have had to, some of them too young,  _ most of them too young,  _ or too inexperienced or–

Well, they had a lot in common.

But there was one vivid difference between Wild and his fellow heroes, and it wasn’t the mass amount of scars that covered him.

It was his failure.

No matter how much the others had gone through they had never _failed, _not as he had. He had _died, _for one. He had left Zelda to fight against the Calamity for _100 years _whilst he slept, and when he awoke he was lost and confused and lacking all he had been before he had been taken to the Shrine. Ever since he had finally beaten Ganon, he could see the way Zelda looked at him as if he was a stranger. He could see the disappointment hidden within her eyes that was forcefully hidden behind layers and layers of other emotions. He continued to fail everyone when he wasn’t able to gain his memories back completely, just as he had failed them 100 years ago.

The scars that marred his body were a physical representation of his constant failures, and he wondered at times whether that was why he was never asked about them, because the others already knew. None of them were as damaged as him, at least not physical, and he  _ prayed  _ not mentally, and it only told him that even among other heroes he was pathetic, useless, a failure who couldn’t accomplish his duty the first time as  _ every single one  _ of the others had been able to.

He kept such thoughts to himself, buried deep, deep down until it came to a time when he was alone and he would be able to contemplate just how much of a burden to the others he was.

He took more night watches than anyone else, but did so as infrequently as possible as to not draw attention to it. At night he found it harder to go to sleep than during the day, and it was also the time that no one could possibly be around in order to see him break himself into pieces. But only ever on the inside, he had more than enough scars (and it wasn’t like he could feel the hurt anymore with how burnt into the nerves the scars had gone).

It was one such night, and his thoughts were more rushed than ever. Today had not gone well. They were in Time’s Hyrule, and it was meant to be safe, but they had heard rumours of something happening in a nearby town and had set out a few days ago. Not long after leaving Lon Lon Ranch Twilight has decided he wanted to teach Wild more about patrolling  _ his  _ way, and not long after that they had walked into an ambush. Twilight had been cut deep into his left arm and Wild had seen blood and there had been spots in his vision and a memory had blurred behind his eyelids, and when he came back to awareness all of their ambushes were dead and Twilight was looking up at him in awe and what Wild took as barely concealed horror.

He hadn’t been able to bring himself to speak when he had picked up Twilight in his arms, and he had barely been present when they had reached camp and everyone crowded around Twilight and he had said, with hands more than words, that he would take watch as they made sure his mentor was okay.

He hadn’t heard any responses, and now he sat as high as he could possibly be in one of the trees surrounding their campsite. And despite everyone being around, still awake, the night was dark and he was too out of it to hear anything going on underneath him. And he fell into his mind.

They would know just how much of a failure he was now, he wouldn’t need to tell them. It was obvious by how he had allowed for Twilight to get hurt when he was nearby. They would know now just how useless he was, how much of a failure of a hero he was. They would know that he wasn’t anything like them, as he had always thought, and they would want him to return to his Hyrule where they would never have to see him again.

Wild grasped his head in his hands with a whine escaping him. The memory from earlier still remained at the edges of his mind, still faded, but all of a sudden something snapped inside him, and the whine became a scream. He stood up from where he was seated, balancing on the large branch, and he couldn’t even hear himself scream as he slammed a foot right into the trunk of the tree with as much force as possible. And he just kept kicking. He just kept screaming.

_ “Why him?” An unfamiliar, and yet so, so familiar, voice screamed, “He’s just a child! Please, not him!” _

_ “I’m sorry, Captain, but it must be done. He is the Chosen One. We cannot oppose the Goddesses wish.” _

He couldn’t do anything right. He let Twilight get hurt. He was useless.

“ _ Stand up, boy! Up, now! You will take your blade in your hands, and you will continue to practice. Now! Get up!” _

_ “...yes, sir.” _

_ His hands burnt. _

He was a failure. He wasn’t even truly alive anymore, just a shell of the person he once was.

_ “Are you sure that he is the one? He looks kind of–” _

_ “Young?” … “Yes, he may be. But he will be the one to push back Ganon and help my daughter to save Hyrule.” _

_ In his hands was a sword too big for him. When he swung it, a dummy collapsed as the blade cut straight through the body. Behind him, two men were speaking. A weight rested heavy on his shoulders, and it would not leave him for the rest of his life. _

All of a sudden, he was pulled away from the trunk of the tree and arms were wrapped tightly around his waist, stopping him from moving at all. His screaming subsided due to the shock, but still his body shook as they wrestled to be released again.

The arms were strong. Tight. He couldn’t find the energy to pull away from them.

He felt so tired.

Everything was so quiet, until it wasn’t. His vision was getting so dark.

“Wild. Wild! You need to breathe. Come on, Cub,  _ breathe.” _

He could barely hear the words. They passed him as if one with the wild. All he could hear was  _ failure, failure, failure,  _ whispering in his head over and over again.

He was turned around and one of his hands were picked up and placed against a hard surface, a surface that was moving with a very slow, very specific timing.

“Breathe, Wild. Come on, kid. Come on.”

It wasn’t by conscious thought that he began to follow the pace of the chest his hand was placed on, and it wasn’t by conscious thought that his eyes began to focus on the face of the person in front of him. But when he finally saw them, he froze.

Time was right in front of him, expression full of worry and something close to panic. But, as Wild’s mind slowly came back to awareness, that seemed like an impossibility. He couldn’t accept – he couldn’t  _ believe  _ – that anyone had come after him, for  _ any  _ reason, after what he had done to Twilight. After he had shown his real character to them for the very first time. No one should have come after him when they should all be there with Twilight,  _ especially Time. _

He stumbled away from Time, wrenching the man's hand away from him and nearly falling from the tree at the same time. A different pair of arms caught him, wrapping around him and preventing him from going anywhere else, no matter how much he struggled. He couldn’t see who it was, but it clicked almost as soon as their words caught his ears.

“Cub, it’s okay. You’re okay, everything’s okay. I’m fine, Wild. I promise. I’ve got you.”

It was unmistakably Twilight.

His shoulders tensed and he struggled to turn around and look at the man. Twilight’s hold on him loosened only slightly, and he kept one hand on Wild as he turned around slowly, eyes wide, almost panicked.

Twilight looked down at him, face betraying nothing but complete and utter calm.

“You see, Wild?” Twilight spoke, smiling down at him, “I’m fine. I’m sorry for making you worry, it must have scared you, huh, kid? I’m sorry.”

That wasn’t it. That wasn’t it at all. Why was Twilight apologising to  _ him?  _ Why was Twilight even  _ here?  _ He had seen how far the blade of their ambusher had gone, he had seen all of the blood, most of it still remained on his champions tunic, Twilight shouldn’t even be  _ standing right now. _

But he was, and Wild was standing there acting like his feelings mattered more than his mentors when they didn’t matter at  _ all. _

His head was shaking before he was even aware of it. He couldn’t bring himself to look into Twilight’s eyes. The concern that he had caught a glimpse of was something he was completely undeserving of, something that he had never earned, especially after his obvious display of failure.

“No.” He finally said, shaking his head furiously. His voice broke and he had to swallow back any other words from escaping him. His eyes felt wet.

“No what, cub?” Twilight carefully asked, the concern not disappearing from his voice.

And something inside Wild snapped.

“No!  _ No!  _ Stop acting like that! Stop being nice to me! Stop  _ lying to me!  _ I don’t deserve it! You should hate me!”

Tears were falling down his cheeks as he dropped from Twilights grip and onto the thick tree branch below him, knees folding beneath him. He sobbed.

“ _ Why don’t you hate me?” _


	2. Chapter 2

It was easy to think of Wild of someone that was strong. Someone who was more self reliant than near all of the others. It was hard to get any information from him about his Hyrule, but eventually they came to learn that his Hyrule was a place that was a more a wasteland than anything else, leaving behind only the remains of an all out war. They knew that he had seen more battles than a lot of them, even with him being younger than some. The scars that covered his body like decorations were more than enough proof of that. Sometimes they were given small facts about where he came from, things like how it had taken months to go from Gerudo desert to the Zora Domain, things like how Lon Lon Ranch was destroyed where he came from (something they learnt when first going to Time’s Hyrule).

But it was never about him, not really. While the others had shared stories about their adventures they kept some things hidden and no one judged them for it, but nearly every single one of them had told a part of themselves to their group. It had been months since they had all met one another and yet Wild was the single most person to keep his adventure hidden. No one pushed, they couldn’t fault him for doing so, but it didn’t stop them from wondering.

The haunted look in his eyes when he came running out of a parting in the woods with Twilight in his arms was something none of them would forget, and left every single one of them scared for Wild. The way he has ran towards them with terror etched into his very features had them all subconsciously wondering what he had seen in the past to have him act so petrified.

Twilight had been fine, the weapon that had hit him hadn’t gone very deep despite the amount of blood it had produced. It didn’t change the fact that once they had seen the blood they had been too focused on Twilight then on Wild who disappeared moments after making sure Twilight was being treated.

It hadn’t taken more than a few minutes for the first person to realise that Wild wasn’t there, and of course the person to notice had been Twilight. He had wanted to go after his protege immediately but everyone wanted to make sure his wound was properly treated before he went after Wild who practically  _ lived  _ in the woods and would likely take a while to reach.

That is, until they heard the sound of something hitting against a tree with extreme force. All of them had been ready to take off but Time was quick to tell them all to let him check it out first. It didn’t take much convincing for the rest to agree as long as he came back before half an hour passed.

About ten minutes into Time being gone, Twilight’s wound had been completely cleaned and bandaged, and they had all been ready to wait. Until they heard the beginning of the screaming, and Twilight’s head perked up with insane speed and was already out of the edges of their campsite before anyone else had a chance to react.

Half of the rest of them remained while the rest followed after.

They all came to a stop underneath one of the tallest trees within the forest which Twilight was beginning to try and climb. All of them winced when he stopped with a hiss of pain, and all of them hoped that it would make his wound open more than it was, but every one of them knew there was no way they would be able to stop him. They could see the faint shape of Time standing on one of the top branches but none of them could hear what was being said. The screaming was unbearable at that point and all of them wished they could go to help but knew they would be no use when Wild had chosen such a spot to place himself.

Eventually though, when Twilight reached the top of the tree and stood on the opposing branch from Time, they could hear Wild’s voice. He was loud, and panicked, and there were unmistakable tears in his voice. What was worse were the words they could hear him saying.

“ _ Why don’t you hate me?” _

It seemed to echo across the forest.

Both Twilight and Time who stood right by the boy could tell that he meant it with every inch of certainty in his being. The very fact that Wild believed that they should hate it was one of the worst things they had ever experienced, especially to Twilight. There were tears streaming down Wild’s face. He still wouldn’t look back at Twilight so the man took it upon himself to lean down and gently make the boy look at him.

Wild was too exhausted to try and stop him.

“Wild, listen to me, okay?” Twilight said, gently taking his protege’s hands in his own, stopping the boy from clawing any deeper into his arms as he had been. Wild just stared and said nothing.

Wild looked like he was beginning to shut down and close himself off completely so Twilight spoke fast.

“Me getting hurt wasn’t your fault. You were  _ amazing,  _ kid, I was so proud to see you fight the way you did, you know that? There is no reason for me to hate you, you did all you could and that’s all you ever need to do. You are so strong, Wild. I could  _ never  _ hate you. You’re one of the closest things I have to family and I love you. Okay, Wild?”

Wild kept staring at him. The tears were beginning to stop and Twilight carefully let go of his hands, letting him choose the direction he wanted to take the situation with no expectations on top of him. He was telling him, without any words, that if he had to he could leave any time he wanted (even if it would break Twilight if he did so).

Wild said nothing as he began back down the tree with the easy skill of someone who had done it many times before.

Time and Twilight let him reach the ground before they followed him after a quiet glance at each other showing they were both feeling the exact same way. Not a word was spoken between them.

Half of their group was at the bottom of the tree, unsure of what to say to Wild who was looking around at them with a heartbreakingly expressionless face. One look from Twilight and Time had them all nodding and heading back to the campsite, and Time looked at Twilight who gave an extremely strained smile to his own mentor and a nod that had the older man leaving.

Only Twilight and Wild remained in the midst of the forest.

Wild wouldn’t look at him, faced away and staring into the distance at something Twilight could not see.

Twilight forced himself to remain calm and patient. He would wait there all night, all  _ day,  _ if that was what Wild needed. He would keep waiting until Wild was ready.

When Wild finally looked back at him, the sun was beginning to rise.

“I failed Zelda.” Wild said, looking towards Twilight but not at him at all.

Twilight’s mouth dropped in shock, but he said nothing. And just as he thought, Wild continued.

“I failed all of Hyrule. I left Zelda to fight against the Calamity… against  _ Ganon  _ for 100 years whilst I slept, and when I came back it was without memories of even my  _ name.” _

Wild finally locked eyes with him.

“I let you get hurt, just like I let Ganon hurt everyone I cared about, and now I don’t even remember those people. I’m the only one who has failed in my mission and I keep  _ fucking up  _ again and again and  _ again _ .”

Wild sighed, and Twilight was able to hear all the pent up emotions that he had been holding inside him for so long. Wild’s eyes dropped down to the ground.

“So, you should hate me. Because I'm not like any of you, and all I ever manage to do is failure over and over again.

“….Do you get it now, Twilight?”

Twilight ran a hand across his face, breathing in deeply. Wild kept his head down, but even then Twilight was able to see the pain etched into his protege’s very expression.

“Yeah, I get it.” Twilight said carefully, and he watched as Wild’s head snapped up immediately at the ease of his answer.

“You do?”

“Yes. I understand that despite the challenges that you faced, you still stood strong, even if you didn’t want to. I understand that you’ve been thrown around and forced to do things that you didn’t know you could do. I understand that you’ve had too much pressure put into your shoulders and no one has told you that you can let it go, that you don’t need to hold it yourself and that you have people now that can help you hold it up.

“I understand that you deserve  _ better,  _ Wild, even against yourself. And I understand that you  _ are not  _ and never have been a failure, and I can promise you with everything in myself that I will never hate you for the things you feel or have gone through. I love you, kid. I understand that. Can you?”

Tears flooded Wild’s face but there was a light in his eyes that Twilight came to realise was  _ never  _ there.

Slowly, Wild walked towards him, wobbly on his feet. And when he reached Twilight, he was the one who took the first step forwards, and Twilight only wrapped his arms around him once Wild was doing the same to him.

“I want to.” Wild whispered against Twilight, his words so quiet but so loud in such an empty space.

There was a brokenness to him still, a crack in him that Twilight was only now realising had been there long before they had first met. But now there was a hope to him, something quiet and hidden but unmistakably  _ there. _

“And that’s all you need to do. I’ve got your back, Wild, no matter what. And so do the others. And we always will. And I’m sure they’re worried, so how do you feel about heading back to our family?”

Wild finally pulled away. He rubbed at his eyes which were red from the tears, but there was a smile on his face. Twilight couldn’t bring himself to care about the damp patch on his clothes, because that smile was more than worth it.

“Yeah,” Wild said, and he grabbed hold of Twilights hand and began walking, “let’s go home.”

**Author's Note:**

> I’m so sorry.


End file.
